Catmose College Transformation Plan 2013/14

(Year 7) and Beauty and the Beast (Years 8 and 9), whilst the senior students will have the opportunity to perform in Spain. http://www.catmosecollege.com/extra-curricular-drama Our sports teams have had an incredibly busy and successful year; so much so that we have produced a special edition of Connect to celebrate them all: http://www.catmosecollege.com/wpcontent/uploads/2013/07/Sport-celebration-new.pdf.

The under 13’s girls cricket team getting through to the national finals, the triumph of Catmose in the annual triangular athletics competition and the Key Stage 3 (KS3) county golf champions are just a few of this year’s highlights. The staff sports team, led by Oliver Teasel give a great deal of their time to plan, coach and support our teams and should be congratulated for their efforts.

Science Week, which has grown in each of the last three years, reached new heights this year with the launch of our Catmose mascot (the mouse) into near space on a weather balloon.

We had visiting lecturers from universities, a parachute jump into the College grounds, a visiting planetarium and a demonstration on liquid nitrogen to name just a few of the highlights. Hena Odedra, one of our science teachers, was responsible for the planning and implementation this year and created a set of experiences that will enthuse students about Science for years to come. http://www.catmosecollege.com/news/science weeknewsletter The academic success of the College has continued to grow thanks to the hard work of staff and students, supported by parents and our governing body. We saw 91% of students reach the key benchmark of 5 A*-C this year, 68% including English and Maths; our highest ever performance for this key benchmark. A number of subjects performed exceptionally well; Mathematics (Rebecca Wardaugh, Reiva Mehra, Neil Mullinger, Simon Dean, Jason Richards, Colette Burns, Rhian Lewis), History (Kate Dodd and Virginia Savage), Physics (Susan Drake and me (!)), Chemistry, Religious Studies (Jude Macdonald and Sue McGrath), Art (Alan Pimperton, Judith Spiers, Joan Townsend and Kim Hincks), Food Technology (Lynne James), Music Technology (Matt Sammy), BTEC PE (Oliver Teasel, Zak Hajat).

The growing reputation of the College as a school that provides an exceptional level of service in first class facilities has led to an increasing number of parents applying for their child to join us. This year we saw our highest number of applications with 266 students applying for just 180 places. It is never an easy decision to turn any child away but to admit more than 180 children into any one year group would prejudice the very things that make us such an attractive school in the first place. However, the Academy Trust of Catmose Federation is exploring an extension to our existing buildings to try and reduce this difficulty in the medium term. If this were to proceed it would add an additional 30 places to each year group.

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